


Whereupon the Almighty Visits Crowley

by Anaquana



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 08:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19437577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anaquana/pseuds/Anaquana
Summary: It's been several months since Armagedidn't and the Almighty decides that it's time to pay Crowley a visit.





	Whereupon the Almighty Visits Crowley

"Crowley."

The demon in question froze in place, one hand wrapped around a plant mister, as Divine light flooded his apartment, nearly blinding in its radiance even behind his dark-tinted glasses.

"Crowley, I see you, just as I see everything in Creation."

"Bugger," Crowley muttered under his breath.

His shoulders slumped with resignation and he let the plant mister fall from his limp fingers. This was it. If the Almighty had seen everything they'd done, then this was the end of Crowley.

And Aziraphale as well, no doubt.

That thought both terrified and enraged Crowley. He'd accept his own fate without a hiss, but Aziraphale didn’t deserve to be destroyed, not for loving the world and creatures the Almighty had created and then, seemingly, abandoned.

"So what, our respective people didn't finish the job, so you're going to do it? Just gonna snap your fingers and poof us out of existence, so you can start Armageddon all over again?" If these were going to be his final moments, he was damned well going to say everything he'd ever wanted to say to the Almighty. "And for what? Are you gonna create another Earth? More people? Different people? Ones who'll fall in line to your whims more easily?"

"Crowley."

But the demon was on a roll and not listening.

"This may all be a game to you, but these are real people with real hopes and dreams. It's not fair for you to give them free will and a mind capable of rational thought and then punish them for using them in ways you disapprove of. Not when you've taken such a hands-off approach these last two thousand years. "

"CROWLEY."

His apartment quaked and all of the plants immediately furled their leaves up with overwhelming fear as the Almighty's voice echoed through the room. Crowley shut up.

"I am not going to destroy you. Nor will I be destroying Aziraphale."

"You're not?"

"No, Crowley." The Almighty's voice was gentle, soothing. Crowley hadn't heard that voice in more than six thousand years and he choked up with emotions, not all of them good. "It was a test, yes, but it wasn't a test for the humans, Crowley."

"I-what? I don't understand." But he did. Or, at least, understanding was beginning to trickle into his brain like water through a crack in a dam.

"I made my covenant with man thousands of years ago, and though they disappoint me time and again, I shall hold by my covenant and not destroy them."

"Then who-? Then why-?" And the dam burst and understanding flooded his mind. "Us. It was a test for us – angels and demons."

"Yes, Crowley."

"But why? Angels have no free will, no rational thought. And demons are one hundred percent evil. Where's the point in testing that?"

The Almighty chuckled.

"Is that really what you think? Were you not an angel when you started asking questions? Is Aziraphale not the angel who gave Adam the flaming sword all those millennia ago so that he might protect himself and Eve from the dangers beyond the Garden?"

"You cast me out for asking questions, but Aziraphale got to remain an angel even though he lied to you." Crowley could barely choke the words out around the bitter lump in his throat. "How fair is that?"

"It _wasn't_ fair – you didn't understand the consequences of asking simple questions and were cast out for them, but Aziraphale understood completely what the price of his transgression would be, yet he did it anyway, then obfuscated the truth when asked about it. And I let him remain an angel anyway. Nothing about that is fair, but that was part of the test."

Crowley stared up into the Divine light, ignoring the sting of brightness and the tears that streamed down his cheeks. They were from the light, that was all, nothing to be concerned with.

"So this was just a test for the two of us? What for?" Crowley's words were becoming much more sibilant as his emotions got the better of him.

"This wasn't just a test of you two, but you were the break-out stars – a lone angel and a lone demon working together to thwart the ineffable will of God? Could you ever imagine?" The Almighty chuckled again, almost as if to Themself before continuing in a more subdued tone of voice. "You were the only two who strove to be more than what I created you to be. The only two who looked at the Great Plan, _My_ Great Plan, and said 'No, this isn't right and we won't allow it to happen.' The only two who cared more for Creation and people than for petty grudges and bloodshed. Or for Me."

Despite everything They'd said before, the Almighty's last words were chilling. But when no flash of lightning struck him down, when no rain of holy water dissolved him into nothingness, Crowley, for the first time since Hastur had placed that basket in his hands eleven years before, finally allowed himself to relax just a bit and start to believe that he and Aziraphale might just have made it out unscathed.

"So, we passed?" he asked with just a bit of hope.

This time the Almighty laughed outright.

"Yes, Crowley, you passed. And in celebration of you passing, I shall grant you one boon of your choosing."

Crowley didn't even have to think about what he wanted. It was what he'd always wanted.

"Him. Just an eternity with Aziraphale."

The Divine light grew brighter, forcing Crowley to shut his eyes and cover his face with his arm.

"Huh… that's what he asked for as well."

And the light shut off, leaving Crowley alone with his plants which had all grown to at least twice their previous size, but Crowley didn't notice as he strode from the room with new purpose. He had an angel to take to the Ritz.


End file.
